Before we go any further building a foundation for the future we have to stop and look at reality.
What we have is a mess. A partisan battlefield where ninety percent of the effort and legislation is directed toward power — who is in charge and who is making the rules. And the needs of the people are in reality not taken into consideration. Oh, lip service is given on every stump any good politician can find to state their cause. And their cause is to get themselves reelected.
So in all honesty — is this a pipe dream? Are we just sitting here grooving to Grace Slick singing White Rabbit?
Or is this doable.
I believe it is. Can it be done overnight? No. But it can be done.
Honesty point number two. Who will be the strongest opponents to effective change? The entrenched politicians themselves. They voted for their own terms, their own pay, their own retirement, their own power. They don’t want to give it up.
Well. F them.
What it will take is us. But not just us in numbers — an educated us. An involved us. It is like wanting to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Cheryl Ladd while eating another pint of Häagen-Dazs. It isn’t going to happen without the exercise. You need muscles before you can flex them.
Think of what I am proposing as a blueprint in its early stages. Something to be thrown around, talked about, redrawn, picked apart and rewritten. And when you’re done — go back and compare it to the original and start building. That is, if you truly want something better.
It isn’t going to magically appear on its own.
We will talk about many things. Healthcare — what should we expect, what do we want, and what is actually reasonable? It’s easy to say free healthcare but someone still has to pay for it. Education — what good is a PhD if you can’t get a job? Maybe trade schools are a good thing. Should the Washington reflecting pool reflect something worth reflecting or just be a pretty shade of blue? The list could go on forever. But I’m old — so I promise you it will be a reasonable list.
And we will address capitalism. After all it is what got us here. I am all for it. But let’s put it in perspective. Who gets what and how much is enough?
It’s all about the seeds. You need to supply the earth, the water and the fertilizer — if any can be found under the current regime.
We also need a label. We all like labels. We need labels. It’s the American Way. This is supposed to be a Democratic Republic we live in.
I’m not so sure that label fits very well anymore.
What do you think?
The obvious goal with this set of foundation blocks isn’t to fix the broken system. It’s to provide a structure with enough strength that it cannot be so easily broken and manipulated again.
